Amcrest 5MP Turret POE Camera, UltraHD Outdoor IP Camera POE with Mic/Audio, 5-Megapixel Security Surveillance Cameras, 98ft NightVision, 132° FOV, MicroSD (256GB), (IP5M-T1179EW-AI-V3)

This IP PoE camera exceeded my expectations. The microphone picks up audio clearly, even from a surprising distance—way better than I anticipated for a security cam. The field of view is wide and crystal clear, covering a large area with sharp detail. Perfect for monitoring wide open spaces without needing multiple cameras. Setup over PoE was simple and clean—just one cable and you're good to go. Overall, very impressed with the quality and performance!

To start, this is a great camera that has all the features you'll need. I compared it side-by-side with another Amcrest camera that this one replaced (IP4M-1028EW-36MM). Both day and night, the picture quality is excellent. I was most impressed by how well the LEDs for the night vision worked. I'm used to my other cameras with 18 IR LEDs that create more of a spotlight effect, rather than a flood where it's very bright in the center, but then the light dims quickly the further you go out, they aren't the greatest at night. When this one only came with 2 LEDs, I thought it would be worse, quite the opposite though. This camera does an incredible job of night vision. The 2 LEDs provide more of a flood effect with no visible hotspots that uniformly light up the entire area (see pictures, there is a second light in the image, to light up the yard's furthest part). With a 2.8mm focal length, it does a great job of displaying the entire area. You can see a lot more at the top and bottom versus the 3.6mm but less on the sides. It's closer to a "fish-eye" kind of view. The audio is good if there is no wind, it will pick up the slightest breeze, but it does an excellent job of picking up the sound around it. The picture is excellent quality, but I did notice the video was a bit laggier than the 4mp cameras that I had. This camera would typically lag about 4-5 seconds, whereas the others were about 2 seconds (The settings can probably be adjusted to make that better though. I just used the default settings).I had this set up using an Amcrest NVR with PoE. The setup was simple, plugged it in, clicked remote devices, the camera was listed there, selected it and clicked add. That was it, I had it working in a few minutes. There are 2 things I am not a fan of with the housing. First, there is no way to tighten the camera once you have it in the place you want. The camera is stiff to move, but it would be nice to tighten it so it cannot move. The second is the "quick connect" mounting plate. You can take the camera off by pushing on a tab and pulling the camera out. No tools are needed to take the camera down. To install the camera, you screw a plate to the wall/ceiling and then slide the camera onto that plate. It makes installation quick and simple but makes removing the camera all that much easier. You can choose not to use the plate and attach the camera directly; however, the holes from the screws do not sit flush on the surface, so I was worried the plastic would crack because of the gap. I wish there were a way to screw/lock the tab so you would at least need some tool to remove it if desired.Besides those 2 minor things, this camera is excellent, and I would highly recommend getting it.Pros:Incredible night vision with only 2 leds (lights up the whole area evenly)Large up/down FOV (more of a fish eye view)Great quality videoCons:Any amount of wind will cause noise with the microphoneNot a fan of the housing

I recently purchased the Amcrest IP5M-T1179EW-28MM camera when looking for a more affordable POE camera to supplement my Ring Stickup Camera (POE models). Overall, it’s not a bad camera for the price. It has its highs and lows as detailed below, but depending on your requirements, I would recommend the camera if it fulfills your needs (mine were an affordable POE camera that doesn’t require PTZ).The setup process was frustrating to say the least. I unboxed the camera and attempted to follow the included manual for setup using the Amcrest Cloud app. I must embarrassingly admit it took me a while to find the QR code for the camera. I went through the box, manual, and included paperwork several times. I even took the camera out of the base and inspected inside the mount, outside, and the camera. I even had my wife look for it. Just before I gave up, I finally realized the QR code was on the cable itself coming out of the camera. I had it sitting on my fireplace mantle for testing and it wasn’t in view. To say I felt a little dumb is an overstatement. In the next few steps, it required me to change the default password (I’m glad it’s a forced change to be honest), but the app would not let me change the password. I tried at least 10 times making sure to always adhere to the defined password policy, but it never worked. I finally called support and after a bit of a hold, was told that I needed to set it up with the Amcrest View Pro app. It’s very frustrating to follow the manual page by page and find out it doesn’t work. The manual did have steps for using the Amcrest View Pro app after the section on the Cloud app, it should have been first if the Cloud app can’t make the camera work. Support made it sound like the Cloud app cannot even be setup if you don’t’ have a subscription. I planned to use the free trial so I could compare against my Ring Protect Plus subscription, but I never ended up going back to that app.Once the camera was setup in the Amcrest View Pro app, things worked much smoother. The video quality is as good as, if not slightly better than my Ring Stickup Cam (POE), which I considered to be the best quality video from a Ring device (and I own almost all of them). Audio quality was fair, but not the best I’ve heard in extremely quiet times. When there was medium or higher sound in the room, it performed much better. For checking in on live video, I am pleased with the video quality and it will suffice for my needs. I was looking for a cheaper POE camera to ultimately use in my barn to keep an eye on sick or pregnant animals. I don’t need cloud recording or motion alerts (as they would fire all the time) but being able to check on an animal without going out to the barn would be great. Some animals interrupt the birthing process when a human comes in view, so being able to monitor from afar can be better for their health. One feature I like from the View Pro app is the capability to see more than one camera at a time. I can’t do this with my existing Ring cameras and wish I could. This will come in handy when I want to monitor multiple stalls in the barn at the same time.As far as the hardware itself I think the build quality is good. For my testing, I used the camera sitting on the fireplace mantle, which is upside down for how it would normally mount. While the camera does manually rotate to compensate, I wasn’t able to tile it as far down as I would have liked. If it was mounted on the ceiling as designed, there would have been no problem as no one is trying to look up into the ceiling. Once I move it out into the barn as planned, this won’t be a problem, but I did want to mention it as I use several Ring cameras sitting on a shelf and they have a better mounting design for this position.All in all, I think the camera is a good value for the money. I think I’ll stick with Ring cameras in and around my house, so I have a single app for video, lights, and alarm, but I plan to install a few of these in the barn to monitor a couple of stalls. I prefer POE cameras so I don’t have to worry about Wi-Fi signal, and considering I need to run power anyways, it makes sense to do it from the same cable. (Battery is an option, but I don’t like changing the batteries at regular intervals with cameras mounted up high.)